By George E. Markakis, www.cdrm.org
Luke 11:5 Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, `Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6 because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'
7 "Then
the one inside answers, `Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my
children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' 8 I
tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his
friend, yet because of the man's boldness (or, persistence) he will
get up and give him as much as he needs.
9 "So I
say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and
the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks
finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
In verse 8, the
key word in the original Greek is “anaideia”. N.I.V. has rendered it ‘boldness (or, persistence)’ as we see in the above scriptures. NKJV,
NASB, NRSV and other translations have chosen the word ‘persistence’, while the older KJS and YLT used ‘importunity’.
However, in Greek “anaideia” means “without
shame”, or, “shamelessness”. I confirmed that in Greek dictionaries of “koine” Greek (Koine
is English Christian terminology for ancient Bible N.T. language), as well as widely accepted English
dictionaries of Bible Greek; in BDB Thayers Dictionary “anaideia” is rendered ‘shamelessness’, or, ‘impudence’; in UBS GNT Dict. “anaideia” is #344 (Strong’s
#335) and rendered as ‘shameless
persistence’. So, let us read
verse 8 correctly:
8 I tell you, though he will not
get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's
shamelessness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
As English Bible translators chose
not to use the exact word for profound reasons, in like manner some can be
offended and ask the question: ‘verse
9 indicates that we should ask of God in the same attitude as that man in the
parable was asking from his friend – does that mean we should ask from God in a
shameless attitude? Isn’t that impolite, irreverent, and even rude?’
Yes, it is! That is exactly why Jesus
chose to use that very word. It was not the first time Jesus used by choice
very offensive language that the religious folks of his days could not
withstand, just like the religious minds of our own days. But now we need to
understand why Jesus chose that very word, so that we may learn our complete
lesson through His parable.
First, anyone who understands the
Middle-eastern village mentality can appreciate that between close friends and
neighbors a shameless mentality is a standard that does not oppose moral or
ethical standards, as in modern Anglo-Saxon and other sophisticated western
urban cultures. Therefore, Jesus spoke in simple ethical and cultural terms
that his listeners could relate to.
However, this is more than a matter
of culture and social ethics; Jesus wanted to make us understand how to
approach God, and His message was not one of irreverence, but one of boldness
sustained with persistence – and that is a concept of forcefulness and aggressiveness which includes
simplicity of mind and assurance that we shall receive that which we are asking for.
But can we apply the same shameless
and aggressive standards as between friends, when we come before the Almighty
God? I believe we can! Here is why: even though we are well advised to approach
the Throne of Grace with trembling and fear in reverence of the Almighty God,
we are likewise advised that we are now adopted as sons [and daughters –implied].
Therefore, if we are now children of God (John 1:12-13),
we may draw near our Father in Heaven with the same simple, child-like shamelessness
that our own children approach us with, us who are their physical parents.
When our children persistently ask
for a candy and we say ‘no’, they shamelessly continue to demand their
candy, using tears and screaming, and all means available to them – if they
can, they will even steal the candy! Yet, we call them neither rude, nor
thieves – we lovingly call them …‘my child’…!
But if someone else’s child comes asking with shameless persistence, we call
that child rude and irritating, because he/she is not ours! We only permit the
liberty of shameless persistence to a child within the borders of
child-to-parent relationship and love.
We thus conclude that boldness in God arises out of our adoption
by God. Apostle Paul spoke a lot about
us being adopted by God: “Ephesians 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He
chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as
sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His
will”.
In this first
part of the article we are examining the concept of boldness, and we shall
focus on adoption in the second part of the article.
We see the concept of boldness appearing early on in the Bible, as a needed attitude of the chosen people of God to pursue the will of God for their lives, in the face of opposition who tried to stop them from gaining their God-given inheritance. Moses needed unlimited boldness to bring his outrageous claim to Pharaoh, the feared ruler of Egypt, that he should let all those slaves leave…!
ü Exodus 14:8 And the Lord hardened the heart of
Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; and the children
of Israel went out with boldness.
ü Numbers 33:3 They departed from Rameses in the first
month, on the fifteenth day of the first month; on the day after the Passover
the children of Israel went out with boldness in the sight of all the Egyptians.
Again we see boldness in the New Testament times as a needed attitude of the children of God to forward God’s Kingdom with shameless persistence in the face of fierce opposition… and such boldness additionally constitutes a form of witness for Jesus Christ!
ü Acts 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of
Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they
marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.
The following scriptures teach us some more of the reasons why boldness is a needed attitude of the children of God. We remember that Jesus Christ died on the cross for the specific purpose of destroying the Kingdom of Darkness and bringing the Kingdom of God to earth. He has commissioned His disciples to continue and complete the work which He started. Satan will not give up the fight easily, and we, the children of God, if we are to be true and faithful disciples of Jesus, need boldness in order to break through the enemy, destroy his works, and manifest the Glory of our King. Satan will use the powers of this world, starting from the religious leaders of each generation, in order to stop the spreading of the Gospel and of the Kingdom of God. We must not give up but press in, and make the choice to speak the Word of God with boldness.
ü Acts 4:29 "Now, Lord, look on their threats,
and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your
word, … 31 And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled
together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they
spoke the word of God with boldness.
The early
Apostles prayed for boldness as the prevailing attitude supporting the speaking
of God’s Word. They understood that boldness is in fact a tool needed for the
Gospel; tools are things which people use to accomplish a required result.
ü 2 Cor 3:12 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech--
The verb which
Paul says in this scripture, “use” in Greek is “chraomai”, which UBS GNT Dict. translates ‘make use of’, ‘make the most of’, but also provides the meaning ‘act’, ‘behave’. Putting it all together, Paul really
says: “since we have such
hope, we act and behave
in such way that we make the most of great boldness of speech as we make use of it”…
We have established that boldness is
a needed characteristic of God’s children; however, it also needs to translate
to action, in order to advance the interests of the Kingdom.
ü Matt 11:12 “From the days of John the Baptist
until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful
men lay hold of it.”
Religious Christians who have the
deceptive mentality of the “Gospel of Salvation” as the focal point of their
understanding of God, cannot contain in their thinking the idea of godly
violence and shameless persistence to the point of rudeness, with unreserved
aggressiveness. The first demonic stronghold that we need to violently
destroy before such Christians can become able to comprehend the truth, is the
concept that ‘Jesus died on the cross so that their individual soul can go
to Heaven’…
Jesus did not die on the
cross so that my individual little soul can be saved… that is a humanistic,
self-serving, self-centered, incomplete and unbalanced
doctrine, result of misinterpretation of the scriptures, and derived from years
of simplistic evangelistic messages to the lost of this world, which was never
restored within the Body of Christ by solemn and responsible scriptural
teaching. We took the simplistic words needed to address the lost, and turned
them into the prevailing doctrine of the Church. We need to substitute the
scriptural Gospel of the
Kingdom of God for the lacking and unbalanced “Gospel of Salvation”.
ü Mark 1:14 Now after John was put in prison,
Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, “The time is
fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the
gospel”.
“Repent, and believe in the gospel” – which gospel? “the
gospel of the kingdom of God”, which contains more issues than
the matter of individual salvation. A more complete presentation of the truth
is that Jesus came to restore a fallen humanity by reconciling mankind back
to God, destroy the works of darkness, and present the Kingdom of
God, into which we must enter not merely to be saved – but mainly to become
a Royal Priesthood, serving God’s plans and purposes.
ü Ephes. 2:10 For we are
His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Indeed our individual salvation is most important and
one of the consequences of the sacrifice of Jesus – but the story does not end
there – there is much more to the cause of the Kingdom, and it pertains to
manifesting the Glory of the Lord on the earth as well as in the heavenly
places:
ü Ephes. 3:9 and to make all see what is the
fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden
in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now
the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the
principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 11 according to the eternal
purpose which He
accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and
access with confidence through faith in Him.
Our individual salvation –as
important that is– is only the beginning of the story, not our destination in
Christ. God’s purpose was not merely to save my little soul, but to purchase a
people on to Himself, who would be His Body on the earth, the Church. Paul
teaches us that God’s eternal purpose was not to save sinners, but that “the manifold wisdom of God might
be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly
places”.
When my mind is
limited to the deceiving and limiting purpose of my individual salvation, I
look at a destination that stops short of the ultimate place of rest, and I
thus cannot contain the need to be shamelessly aggressive in order to destroy
the works of the devil and advance the Kingdom of my God. If I think Jesus died
on the cross to save me, and I am saved, then His purpose has been fulfilled in
my life… that is a demonic stronghold aiming at incapacitating the Body of
Christ, rendering it useless and unable to fulfil the true purpose of God and
calling of the disciples of Jesus. Satan wants to stop us from destroying his
kingdom of darkness, and has perverted the foundational understanding of the
Gospel to accomplish his purpose. On the other hand:
ü 1 John
3:8 “…For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy
the works of
the devil.”
If we are to be
true disciples of Jesus, then we must take hold of our commission, and continue
the work that Jesus started. He has sent us to “go … and make disciples of all the
nations” (Matt.28:19) so that He could accomplish the purpose
of the Church through us all, as His Body on the earth. He did not say that we
should go and save sinners, but we should make disciples, as able as the
early disciples.
One reproduces
after his own kind; Jesus reproduced disciples who were like Him; His disciples
would reproduce other disciples who would be like them, i.e. like Jesus, and so
on. Are we today genuine offspring of the early disciples? Are we bold and
aggressive in preaching the Kingdom of God as they were? Are we boldly
destroying the works of the devil as Jesus did? Jesus said:
ü Matt
16:18 “…I will
build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”
That indicates that we are called to storm the gates of Hades and break them open, so that the captives can be set free, and the dead arise. Gates in the Old Testament times signified the security of the fortified cities, and the enemy would storm the gates in order to conquer the defending city. Gates also signified authority, as the elders of a city would have their judgment seats by the gates to rule over the city. As the Church of Jesus Christ is called to storm the gates of Hades and release Satan’s captives, destroying his demonic strongholds, redeeming the land from his authority, enforcing the authority of Jesus Christ, and establishing His reign, Jesus promised that those gates would not prevail against His boldly advancing and aggressively attacking Church!
The model of
God’s violently advancing people is abundantly clear in the Old Testament copy
of the heavenly things which were to come in the fullness of time (i.e. after
Jesus Christ):
ü Joshua 1:6 "Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as
an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 "Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to
all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the
right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. 8 "This
Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it
day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in
it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good
success. 9 "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God [is] with you
wherever you go."
In the Old
Testament God showed us through practical examples (as Paul explains in
1Cor.10:6, 11) what is the nature and calling of His people, as well as
their leaders. Almost every Christian today quotes the words of God to Joshua “be strong and very courageous, do not be
afraid, nor be dismayed”, but we rather quote them when we are under demonic attack, in fear of
our lives, in great dismay and shame, hiding away and licking our wounds, which
the devil inflicted upon us… But that was not the context in which God spoke to
Joshua. Joshua was not receiving an enemy attack, but he was violently
advancing with great boldness against the stronghold of Jericho, which an
entire people had failed to conquer out of fear of their own lives, 40 years
earlier.
Relating the
contrast of the humanistic “Gospel of Salvation” versus the Biblical Gospel of
the Kingdom to the Old Testament examples, we see that “salvation” for the Jews
came when God took them out of Egypt – that was their salvation from their
bondage and oppression. The modern equivalent of Egypt’s oppression is the
oppression of sin, under the yoke of which we suffer.
But God did not
merely want to get them out of Egypt; leaving Egypt was only the beginning of a
greater plan for His people – to give them a land for inheritance, overflowing
with physical blessings! That would be the Kingdom of God manifest in our
lives, as opposed to being merely saved… In fact, God’s plan did not end with
His people merely possessing the promise land. His ultimate purpose was to
remove the pagan worship from that land, and establish the worship to the One
and only God. His ultimate purpose was to acquire a people to Himself, who would
be His priests on the earth, who would maintain daily the worship and
exaltation of His Name on the holy land He had promised them.
When the first
generation of Jews failed to come into the fullness of God’s plan for their
lives, God cursed them to die in the lack and misery of the desert, away from
the riches and abundance of the Promise Land. They tasted salvation, but also
tasted the curse of God in their daily lives, away from the promises and the
physical blessings where there the rest of God prevails over desert hardship.
ü Psalm 95:8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in
the rebellion, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 When your fathers
tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work. 10 For forty years I was
grieved with that generation, and said, `It is a people who go astray in their
hearts, And they do not know My ways.' 11 So I swore in My wrath, `They shall
not enter My rest'.”
Why did the previous generation of Israelites fail to attack Jericho? Because they were afraid! So many Christians today have known the salvation of the Lord, but they live away from His Promise Land, without having entered His rest, because they have failed to see beyond the “Gospel of Salvation”, failed to boldly advance the Kingdom of God in their lives, or, have been too afraid to attack the demonic strongholds that kept them separated from their own “Promise Land”. Fear is the weapon of the devil to stop the people of God from boldly advancing God’s Kingdom! God says again:
ü Haggai 2:4 `Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,' says the Lord; `and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high
priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,' says the
Lord, `and work; for I am with you,' says the Lord of hosts. 5 `According to the word that I
covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you;
do not fear!'
Paul addresses the subject of fear in the following scripture, contrasting it to power, love and sound mind. This contrast identifies fear as a demonic weapon that aims at quenching the power of God, limiting His love, and causing disorder and confusion in the Christian’s mind.
ü 2 Timothy 1:6 Therefore I remind you to stir up
the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God has not given us a
spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor
of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel
according to the power of God.
Next to fear, shame
is another emotion which the devil uses to thwart the boldness of the people of
God. Paul attacks the false application of shame in both scriptures, above and
below:
ü Phil 1:20 according to my earnest expectation and
hope that in nothing I
shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be
magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.
Fear and/or shame aim at stopping us from
being effective witnesses for Jesus. But He said:
ü Matth 10:32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before
men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. 33 "But
whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven”.
Why would a Christian deny Jesus? Same as
Peter, out of fear; for many, out of shame… As we see through various angles,
life with Christ is not merely a matter of salvation – it really is more like living
in a war zone! Those who limit God to the concept of their own individual
salvation and have deceptive ideas about God’s love that unconditionally
forgives all our errors after He saved us, cannot fit in their theology the
concept of Jesus denying them, because they were afraid or ashamed to confess
His Name before people. Such Christians try to live a life of a self-imposed
atmosphere of peace, where there is no room for bold and forceful
confrontations. However, Jesus said after His previous words:
ü Matth 10:34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace
on earth. I did not come
to bring peace but a sword. 35 "For I have come to `set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a
daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law';
36 "and `a man's enemies will be those of his own household.' 37
"He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he
who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 "And he who
does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 "He
who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My
sake will find it”.
We now need to
look at the original Greek word for “fear” in 2 Timothy 1:6, above, because Paul in fact used the word
“deilia”, which the UBS GNT Dict. correctly translates ‘cowardice’, or ‘timidity’. Now, cowardice indeed produces fear, but
it is still a separate concept, which we need to understand, otherwise we could
never correctly and fully grasp the following scripture:
ü Revelation 21:7 "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be
his God and he shall be My son. 8 "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers,
sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in
the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."
Remember we are
called by God not only to be saved, but to inherit His promises, displacing the
Kingdom of Darkness, and enthroning Jesus as King of the earth, advancing the
Kingdom of God. However, even though God has promised us the land of
inheritance, we need to fight for it in order to possess it, boldly confronting
our enemy, confessing Jesus with strength, without shame. As God promised the
Promise Land to the Jews, but they had to fight and overcome their enemies in
order to possess it, we also need to overcome the demonic opposition before
God’s promises are fulfilled in our lives. That is why Jesus says through John:
“He who overcomes shall inherit all things”!
The promised
inheritance does not come in bundle-pack along with salvation, but it is the
fruit of bold confrontations with the kingdom of darkness, which we are called
to dispossess, so that as we overcome we may come into the promised
inheritance. Our salvation does not inherit us the promises, but takes us on
the road of war-like conflict with the demonic world, which is a narrow road,
filled with grief and pressures, as we fight on to break through the enemy
lines, and overcome their resistance.
God was angry
with the Jews who did not display boldness and courage in the face of Jericho,
but they were cowardly and unbelieving, and so He cursed them to die in the
desert. Likewise, God today makes it clear to us, that those who are “cowardly” and “unbelieving” shall be accounted along with the liars
and the idolaters, and “shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone”. We cannot enter God’s rest, unless we
display boldness and aggressive persistence, which is God’s concept of faith,
through which we can overcome the demonic resistance!
Before v.21:7,
in the Book of Revelation, Jesus repeats 7 times, to each of the 7 churches
that He addresses, that only those who overcome will receive His promises; that
is in 2:7, 11, 17 and 26, and then in 3:5, 12, and in 21, where He says: “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit
with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His
throne”.
Whether our theology permits it, or understands it, or not, Jesus is clear! If we want to sit on the Throne with Him, we must overcome; we are called to be conformed to His image and likeness and follow His example – if He needed to overcome, so must we, too! If He needed to learn obedience as a son by the things which He suffered, so must we!
ü Hebr. 5:8 though He was a Son, yet He learned
obedience by the things which He suffered
Therefore,
boldness is not merely a tool needed to defeat the demonic resistance, but also
a needed attribute of godliness without which we may fail to sit with Jesus on
His Throne!
As much as boldness is a tool of war, we also need boldness in order to enter in the Presence of God, and stand in the faith which we have believed, even for the day of judgment!
ü Hebr. 10:19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness
to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus
ü 1Tim 3:13 For those who have served well as
deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the
faith which is in Christ Jesus.
ü 1Joh 4:17 Love has been perfected among us in
this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He
is, so are we in this world.
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This report was posted on June 8, 2004, at http://www.cdrm.org/teaching
All ownership rights reserved by the
author, George E. Markakis
Shalom Christian Center – A House of Prayer
8,
Akominatou street, Athens, Greece
http://www.cdrm.org Email: markakis.g@cdrm.org
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